International Karate +

Genre

Fighting

Developer / Publisher

System 3

Released

1987

Media

1 x

Rating

Graphics:

8.5

Sound:

8.0

Gameplay:

9.0

Overall:

9.0

Reviewed by

ndial

International Karate + (aka IK+) was a karate fighting game produced by System 3, back in the 1987, for the three 8bit home-computers, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and Spectrum ZX. In 1988 it was converted for the Atari ST and Amiga (1 Disk 3.5").

Review

An excellent title, in which, three Karateka fight against each other on a beach, trying to be the first to score six points. After every two rounds, there is a bonus game which is either deflecting bouncing balls or kicking away bombs. The game can be played by one or two human players, at least one fighter is always controlled by the computer.

To be honest this is a tough game. It's easy in the first two-three rounds (each round is separated in two fighting events between the three fighters). When passing a fighting round a new karate belt is being given (I only managed to gain the fourth - purple - after playing 100 times or so back to 80s either on 8bits or16bits version!). Between the rounds there is always a bonus round, as previously mentioned.Note that the 8bit Atari version was never released officially and this version is an unfinished port from the C64.

The Atari 8bit version (XL/XE) is a direct port form the Commodore 64 version and offers superb graphics and sound! Backgrounds are cute, although having a single scene (a sunset over the sea etc) with occasionally some animated happenings (birds flying, a Pac-Man would appear, a spider would descend etc) exactly as found on the original version. This port looks more like a 16bit version here (much like the C64 version)!Sound is great and resembles the C64 version too. The in-game music is great while the sound effects here are digitized sounds of karate-style fighting (kicking, punching, screaming etc)!

Atari XL/XE

CPU: MOS Technology 6502C (1.79MHz for NTSC / 1.77MHz for PAL)MEMORY: 16Kb, 64Kb to 128Kb RAM (600XL, 65XE/1200XL/800XL, 130XE respectively), 16-32Kb ROMGRAPHICS: Upto 16 colors on screen at 160x192 or 2 colors at 384x240 (overscan) from an 128 to 256 color palette (the last available only on GTIA chip found in later than the old 400/800 models).SOUND: (POKEY custom chip) sound generator of 4 voices, 3.5 octaves, capable for polyphonic music and sound effects.